Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/536

 ,704 F R A F R A escape from Elba, and fought with distinction at Quatre- Bras and at Waterloo, where he was again badly wounded. After the second restoration he returned to civil life, and in 1819 was elected to the chamber of deputies. For this position his experience and his studies had especially fitted him, and by his first speech he gained a commanding place in the chamber, which he never lost, his clear, manly elo quence being always employed on the sids of freedom and justice. In 1823 he made a powerful protest against French intervention in Spain, and after the dissolution of 1824 he was re-elected for three constituencies. He died at Paris, November 28, 1825, and his funeral was celebrated amidst the mourning of the city and the nation. His family were provided for by a national subscription. A collection of his speeches was published in 1826, and his un finished Histoirc dc la Guerre dc la Peninsule sous Napolion in 1827. Several biographies of Foy have been published. FRAAS, KARL NIKOLAS (1810-1875), a German bot anist and agriculturist, was born at Stettelsdorf, near Barn- berg, 8th September 1810. After receiving his preliminary education at the gymnasium of Bamberg, he in 1830 en tered the university of Munich, where he took his doctor s degree in 1834. Having devoted great attention to the study of botany, he went to Athens in 1835 as inspector of the court garden; and in April 183G he became professor of botany at the university. In 1842 he returned to Germany and became teacher at the central agricultural school at Schleissheim. In 1847 he was appointed profes sor of agriculture at Munich, and in 1851 director of the central veterinary college. For many years he was secre tary of the Agricultural Society of Bavaria, but resigned in 1861, He died at his estate of Neufreimann near Munich, 9th November 1875. Besides his important contributions to the sciences of lootany and agriculture, Fraas devoted much of his effort to improve the condition of the peasants. His principal works are 2Toixe&amp;lt;a TTJS SoraviKTJs, Athens, 1835; Synopsis florae dassicce, Munich, 1845; Klima uiulPflanzcnwcltin dcr Zcit, Landsh., 1847; Histor-encyJclopad. Grundriss dcr Land- imrthschnftslchre, Stuttgart, 1848; Gcschichtc dcr Landicirtlischaft, Prague, 1851; Die Schule des Landbaucs, Munich, 1852; aicrns Rindcrrasscn, Munich, 1&53; DicKiinstlichcFischcrzcugung, Munich, 1854; Die Natur dcr Landwirtlischaft, Munich, 1857; fiucli der Natur fiir Landwirtlie, Munich, 1860; Die Ackcrbaukriscn und Hire Heilmittel, Munich, 1866; Das Wurzellebender (hiUitrpfa. nxen, Berlin, 1872; and Ocschichte dcrLandbau und Forstv;isscnschaft sc.it dcm 16 ten Jahrh., Munich, 1865. He also founded and edited a weekly agricultural paper, the Schranne. FRA BARTOLOMMEO. See BACCIO BE LA PORTA. FRACASTORIO, HIERONYMO (1483-1553), a learned physician and poet, was born at Verona in 1483. It is re lated of him that at his birth his lips adhered so closely that a surgeon was obliged to divide them with his incision knife, and that during his infancy his mother was killed by lightning, while he, though in her arms at the moment, escaped unhurt. Fracastorio became eminently skilled, not only in medicine and belles-lettres, but in most arts and sciences. It was by his advice that Pope Paul III., on account of the prevalence of a contagious distemper, re moved the council of Trent to Bologna. He was the author of many works, both poetical and medical, and was inti mately acquainted with Cardinal Bembo, Julius Scaliger, and most of the great men of his time. He died of apoplexy at Casi, near Verona, on the 8th of August 1553; and in 1559 the town of Verona erected a statue in his honour. The principal work of Fracastorio is a kind of medical poem entitled Xyphilidis, sive Morlii Gallici, libri trot, Verona, 1530, which has been often reprinted, and also translated into French and Italian. Among his other works (all published at Venice) are De Vini Tcmpernturn, 1534 ; Homoccntricorum, 1535 ; De Si/m- prtrtm rt AntipatMa, Itcrum, 1546; and Dc Contagion Urns, 154&amp;lt;&amp;gt;. His complete works were published at Venice in 1555, and his poetical productions were collected and printed at Padua in 17 28. FRA DIAVOLO is the popular name given by his countrymen to the most notorious and dreaded of modern Italian brigands; and the name, associated during his life time with the political revolutions of southern Italy, has acquired a world-wide celebrity since it became the title of a favourite French opera. His real name was Michelc Pezza. It would be as hopeless to fix the precise dates in his career as to determine those in the lives of Rob Roy or Jonathan Wild. He is stated, however, to have been born at ItrL His crimes became invested with a more general and political interest in 1799. At that time, from the fre quency and audacity of his robberies and murders along the frontier of the Terra di Lavoro, he became known as Fra Diavolo, the popular superstition investing him with th j blended attributes of a monk and a demon. When the kingdom of Naples was overrun by the troops of the French Republic, Fra Diavolo, acting in concert with the head of the Bourbon partisans, Cardinal Ruffo, waged a fierce and untiring war against the French soldiers, whenever his sup erior knowledge of the localities afforded the prospect of his being able to do so with effect. He continued for a con siderable period in absolute possession of the line of com munication from the Garigliano to Portello, falling upon and massacring the French Government couriers, and all whom he suspected of conveying information to the military or civil functionaries of the Republic. At one moment he succeeded in completely interrupting all communication between Naples and Rome. Like his fellow agents under Cardinal Ruffo like Mammone, Pronio, Sciarpa Guar- riglia he styled himself &quot; the faithful servant and subject of his Sicilian Majesty.&quot; As the turning point in Fra Diavolo s career must be regarded the arrival in Naples of Joseph Bonaparte, and the establishment of the extraor dinary tribunals charged with the repression of this half civil half political brigandage. Fra Diavolo was sentenced to death, and a price was set on his head. After spreading terror through Calabria by his deeds of cruelty he had passed over into Sicily, but soon returned to the mainland at the head of 300 liberated convicts placed at his disposal by the Bourbon Government. His landing at Spelonza with these ruffians was marked by unusual excesses, but tha French troops were everywhere on the alert to capture him, and he was compelled to seek refuge amongst the woods and mountains of Lenola. During a period of two months he succeeded in evading his pursuers, always in the hope of making his way back to Sicily. At length, ex hausted by hunger and requiring medical aid, he repaired in disguise to the village of Baronissi, but was there recog nized and put to death. It is stated that on his person were found papers from Queen Caroline of Naples and Admiral Sidney Smith, those from the former recognizing his rank as colonel in the Bourbon army, and that in his last moments he cursed both his employers and his own folly which had led him to engage in such a reckless enter prise. The most authentic source for the career of Fra Diavolo is Colletta s History of Naples, which the English reader may consult in the version, equally faithful and spirited, of Miss Homer. FRAHN, CHRISTIAN MARTIN, a numismatist and his torian, was born at Rostock, 4th June 1782, and died at St Petersburg, 28th August 1851. He commenced his Oriental studies under Tychsen at the university of Ros tock, and afterwards prosecuted them at Gottingen and Tubingen. He became a Latin master in Pestalozzi s famous institute in 1801, returned home in 180G, and in the following year was chosen to the chair of Oriental lan guages in the Russian university of Kasan. Though in 1815 he was invited to succeed Tychsen at Rostock, he preferred to go to St Petersburg, where he became director of the Asiatic museum and councillor of state. The incle-